aign, and distinguished himself by his gallantry at
Tarragona; his health failing, he retired from the army in November 1642,
and three years later was awarded a special military pension in recognition
of his services in the field. The history of his life during the next few
years is obscure. He appears to have been profoundly affected by the death
of his mistress--the mother of his son Pedro Jose--about the year
1648-1649; his long connexion with the theatre had led him into
temptations, but it had not diminished his instinctive spirit of devotion,
and he now sought consolation in religion. He became a tertiary of the
order of St Francis in 1650, and finally reverted to his original intention
of joining the priesthood. He was ordained in 1651, was presented to a
living in the parish of San Salvador at Madrid, and, according to his
statement made a year or two later, determined to give up writing for the
stage. He did not adhere to this resolution after his preferment to a
prebend at Toledo in 1653, though he confined himself as much as possible
to the composition of _autos sacramentales_--allegorical pieces in which
the mystery of the Eucharist was illustrated dramatically, and which were
performed with great pomp on the feast of Corpus Christi and during the
weeks immediately ensuing. In 1662 two of Calderon's _autos_--_Las ordenes
militares_ and _Misticay real Babilonia_--were the subjects of an inquiry
by the Inquisition; the former was censured, the manuscript copies were
confiscated, and the condemnation was not rescinded till 1671. Calderon was
appointed honorary chaplain to Philip IV, in 1663, and the royal favour was
continued to him in the next reign. In his eighty-first year he wrote his
last secular play, _Hado y Divisa de Leonido y Marfisa_, in honour of
Charles II.'s marriage to Marie-Louise de Bourbon. Notwithstanding his
position at court and his universal popularity throughout Spain, his
closing years seem to have been passed in poverty. He died on the 25th of
May 1681.

Like most Spanish dramatists, Calderon wrote too much and too speedily, and
he was too often content to recast the productions of his predecessors. His
_Saber del mal y del bien_ is an adaptation of Lope de Vega's play, _Las
Mudanzas de la fortuna y sucesos de Don Beltran de Aragon_; his _Selva
confusa_ is also adapted from a play of Lope's which bears the same title;
his _Encanto sin encanto_ derives from Tirso de Molina's _Amar par sena